Professor Paula McFadden and Dr Rachel Naylor, School of Applied Social and Policy Science, Ulster University.
Safe staffing is critical to safe and effective social work practice, workforce sustainability, staff well-being and for safeguarding children and adults in need of protection. Unlike other health and social care professions, social work has lacked mandated staffing levels or caseload benchmarks, contributing to workload strain, burnout, and inconsistent service delivery. This presentation aims to support more sustainable social work practice based on improved staff wellbeing and continuity of care for service recipients. It is directly relevant to the proposed Safe and Effective Staffing Bill, based on a study commissioned by the Office of Social Services, Department of Health Northern Ireland, which adopted a staffing supply and workload demand approach using mixed methods, to analyse the workloads and staffing of 270 social work teams.
Outlining key findings of the study, the presentation addresses its first phase, including establishing a safe staffing definition, specifying three main concepts (Capacity, Communication and Connection) and developing 10 safe staffing in social work principles that are to underpin the HSC Trusts policy guidance, as well as draws on the learnings from recent familiarisation across the region (March – June 2026). Thereafter, it addresses the study’s second phase, providing workload insights about social worker time allocations for minor, moderate and complex cases and how those will inform written standards guidance for them, based on workload modelling across children’s and older people’s services. Indicative safe caseload ranges were identified as: 13-15 for Family Intervention Teams; 8-12 for Gateway Teams; 12-18 for Looked After Children Teams; and, 30-39 for Older People’s Community Services. In addition, thematic analysis highlighted increasing case complexity, administrative burden, and the importance of supportive communication and supervision.
Downloads:
Policy Briefing
Presentation
Video will be forthcoming